Gary, the Most American of All American Cities

S. Paul O'Hara

Publication Year: 2011

U.S. Steel created Gary, Indiana. The new steel plant and town built on the site in 1906 were at once a triumph of industrial capitalism and a bold experiment in urban planning. Gary became the canvas onto which the American public projected its hopes and fears about modern, industrial society. In its prime, Gary was known as "the magic city," "steel's greatest achievement," and "an industrial utopia"; later it would be called "the very model of urban decay." S. Paul O'Hara traces this stark reversal of fortune and reveals America's changing expectations. He delivers a riveting account of the boom or bust mentality of American industrialism from the turn of the 20th century to the present day.

Cover

Contents

Introduction: “Built as It Is on Shifting Sand”

The story of Gary, Indiana, has been told in many ways. When U.S. Steel
finished building its newest steel production center in 1909, the corporation
named the city after its chairman, Judge Elbert H. Gary. Because the
company had seemingly conjured the city and its mill (or perhaps the mill...

Part 1: Gary, the Magic City: Creation Myths

1. “An Industrial Utopia”: The Search for Industrial Order

The United States Steel Corporation had ensured that its process of converting
large shipments of coal and iron ore into finished steel was fast,
efficient, and seamless. Great care had gone into the planning of its newest
production center in Gary, Indiana, so that no unnecessary movement...

2. “ Making a City to Order”: U.S. Steel and the Building of an Industrial Center

“In approaching consideration of the model village,” Eugene Buffington,
president of the Indiana Steel Company, wrote of Gary in 1909, “our
thought naturally gravitates toward problems associated with the complex
social relations found in present-day urban life.” “Who can doubt,”...

Part 2: A City Built on Sand: Paradox and Meaning

3. “ The Youngest City in the World”: The Early Years of an Industrial Frontier

There could be little doubt that the election of 1912 was going to be about
the issue of reform. Each of the four candidates offered a reform agenda,
yet each candidate differed on what he saw as the major problem that
needed reform. With their shared yet complicated visions of Square Deal...

4. “The Gibraltar of the Steel Corporation”: Narrative Meaning in a Steel Strike

By September 1919, the lines had been drawn in the struggle over union
recognition in the steel industry. As a large-scale strike loomed a couple of
days away, the Chicago Tribune began preparing its readers for the climatic
conflict. “Commanders of both sides in the steel controversy tonight are...

The chaos and uncertainty of the Great War, the Russian Revolution,
and the Red Scare had not been kind to people’s faith in modernity and
industrialism. American critics began not only to question the results of
industrialism but to view industrialism itself as a grave danger. In a 1922...

Part 3: The Very Model of Modern Urban Decay: Decline and Fall

The war effort had been about inclusive democracy, communal sacrifice,
and the rejection of racial categories and racialized hatred. Or at least this
was the official war narrative created by the Office of War Information
(OWI). While much of American culture had focused on proper hatred...

7. “Epitaph for a Model City”: Race, Deindustrialization, and Dystopia

Lake County was supposed to be a minefield for Democrats in the 1968
presidential primary. This was, after all, a county that Alabama governor
George Wallace had carried in the 1964 primary. After what was to many
the surprising popularity of Wallace’s primary campaign, many...

Conclusion: “In Search of America”

In June 2009, the city of Cleveland celebrated the fortieth anniversary of
perhaps its most infamous moment. In 1969, the Cuyahoga River, which
had long served as an open sewer for the city, caught fire and burned.
Although the fire was relatively small and caused little damage, the event...

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